An off beat look at Indonesian and South East Asian football from the terraces or the pub

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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The Poison That Chokes Football

Football clubs in South East Asia are nothing like the image
we have of football clubs in the west. They are not the oligarch run club with
deep pockets exuding arrogance neither are they the plucky non league club held
together by one old chap who collects the money at the turnstile, produces the
matchday programme and cuts the grass on the pitch.

Football here doesn’t even fit in between those two
extremes. Most clubs in Indonesia, Malaysia and even Thailand have some
connection with local government. The people who run the clubs have some kind
of connection with local government.

As such their default mode is too wait for a subsidy. They
don’t market their clubs because they don’t know how to. Cash flow is something
they see in the casinos of Singapore and Macau, not in their football club.

Those clubs that are privately owned often have owners with
their own agenda and motives. In Thailand for example politicians and big
business have jumped on the football bandwagon that begun in 2009. And these
are a breed who don’t take defeat kindly. Not when it’s them that lose.

Malaysia and Indonesia have a handful of privately run clubs
but it is obvious the experiences learnt rent seeking or running a near
monopoly business aren’t being applied to the football. Who the hell can come
up with football club names like My Team, LionsX11, T Team, PLUS (a highway),
SPA etc?

The average chain smoking, Blackberry wielding club official
may be a decent enough bloke. But there is nothing in his background that
equips him for his football role. If he has no money he just won’t hand
anything over. He won’t publicise it, won’t make a song and dance out of it.
He’ll just do nothing. Because that is what he is used to.

In his real world people don’t complain too much. They
can’t. Government officials yield a lot of power and they are usually
answerable to other government officials who will usually side with their own
when it comes to disputes; unless they decide it is in their interests to do
otherwise.

Local governments are not the best at being transparent. The
officials are surly and believe they are doing you a favour by even being
allowed in their hallowed domain. You are their under sufferance and you are
made to know it.

There will be no leaflets telling citizens their rights, no
charter and no hint of rules and regulations. The law sits behind a desk and is
a petty potentate of all he surveys. He is a big fish in a small pond with a
pension and job security.

These guys don’t repair the roads. They may have black and
white lines painted on the kerb to prove they have spent their annual budget
and can they please have an increase next year but actual repairs are carried
out haphazardly and as cheaply as possible. Graffiti is allowed to stay on bus
shelters while trash accumulates due to the lack of any organized collections.

People arrive late to work, run their own business from
their desk and go home when they want.

Against this background there is little wonder footballers
don’t always get paid. It’s the way they have been brought up. They have
sinecures without responsibility. Theirs is a mindset of trivia, point scoring
and regulations. Sticklers for paperwork being in the right order when it suits
them they have the power to make nothing happen for a long time if they feel
they are not being adequately respected and all that entails.

And these are the people who, with some exceptions of
course, who run the majority of football clubs in this country.

Football, says Sir Alex Ferguson, bloody hell. The knight of
the realm, I fear, doesn’t know the half of it.